Kurt Warner has made some waves in the sports media headlines recently. The ex-NFL quarterback turned analyst has called out talking heads — like Stephen A. Smith — making it known that he isn’t exactly fond that they “pretend” to be experts on the National Football League.
While Dan Orlovsky gave his quarterback counterpart some tips on how to keep up on game film, Warner shared some of his own advice for NFL fans, delving into how they can be smarter consumers of football and look at the game a bit differently when watching in real-time.
“I would tell you not to do it off of a TV game,” Warner said during a 670 The Score appearance earlier this week, “because the bottom line is you don’t know. Everything happens too fast; you don’t get to see the whole picture. You can’t re-wind back and see like I can with the All-22 and go, ‘OK, his eyes were over here, what’s the concept over here?’ You’re not just looking at them show a replay of somebody open on the other side of the field and go, ‘Oh my gosh, why’d he throw it that guy? He’s wide open,’ without knowing what’s going on.
“‘Oh, the offensive line is terrible; Caleb (Williams) got hit again.’ And now you go back and watch it, and you go, ‘Oh, that was actually a hot situation. That one was on Caleb, not on the offensive line.’ Or vice versa; the offensive line messed up the protection here, so we’re saying Caleb should’ve thrown it hot, but it really should’ve been on the offensive line.
“So, unless you can watch the game that shows everything in this tight, little box and follows the balls and truly understand the nature of what’s going on, I truly think you have to watch TV games for entertainment. You watch TV games to cheer for your team and enjoy the game and the spectacle and the amazing athletes that we have and we get to watch. And you marvel at what they do.
“You don’t shape opinions on even what a commentator says, because there’s commentators out there that I listen to and I go, ‘Nope, that’s not what happened. That’s not what’s going on.’ But they think it is in the moment, just like a person watching the game thinks that’s happening in the moment, and that’s why it’s so important for me. I very seldom do any shows and talk about anything until I get through the tape. And if I’m going on…I make sure I watch the Chicago tape, and I study it the way I want to study it, so when we talk, I’ve had seen what’s going on, and I’ve got an assessment on breaking it down.”
.@kurt13warner shares advice on how we can all be smarter football fans.
Listen to full interview: https://t.co/MUchrWROUW pic.twitter.com/7iCEPtlz2F
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) September 23, 2024
Warner finds that really difficult; he says he doesn’t know if there is a good way to expand one’s viewing experience to a higher level by just watching on a Sunday afternoon in one’s living room.
Warner isn’t naive. The ex-NFL quarterback understands that the average fan doesn’t have access to game film or detailed insights he relies on. But his point here is that football is far more complex than we see on the surface. For fans watching from their couch, it’s essential to appreciate the game for its entertainment value rather than draw hard conclusions based solely on what they see on TV or what analysts say in the heat of the moment.
In Warner’s view, the actual game is happening beyond the camera lens, and only through deeper understanding can anyone honestly see the whole picture.
